Gongali Village School

Monday, 18 July 2016

Hello AllI just returned from Africa on July 7 with another amazing trip; new experiences, inspiring new people, and most of all, great progress with school construction.Simba Milima Primary School - Grand OpeningChris Ronneseth of Safari Partners Inc, the funding donor for the school, joined us for the official opening of the school; two new classrooms and an administration buildingwith a headmaster's office, a teacher's room and a library room. A mass of (mostly) uniformed pupils greeted him with singing when he arrived and later performed an entertaining and amazingly precise marching dance number. Many speeches praised and appreciated him for his generosity and support of the schooling needs of this community, and rewarded him by "robing" him in a traditional Maasai blanket to become an honorary elder of the Doffa Village commuity.

Village children celebrating the new school

Our projects now seem to attract government awareness and promises of continued future support. Dignitaries attending the event included the member of Parliament for the area, Mr Willy Qambalo, the District Chairman, Mr Jubilate Mnenye, and the District Executive Director, Mr Moses Mabulo.

Thanks to our excellent builder Restus Sanka for another quality construction; brightly painted smooth plastered brick walls, level concrete floors, well-crafted and smoothly operating metal doors and windows. With the school now turned over to the village, the locals proudly state that these buildings are the best and most important ones in the village and vow to take great care of them.And thanks as always, to our Project Manager, Mathew Sulle, for a great job in organizing the openings at all schools.

Community built foundations for the teacher residences - will be completed by PSFA with additional funding from Safari Partners Inc.

The village wanted to do something themselves to aid in the construction; they raised enough funds (about $1,800) to start the first teacher residence building and managed to at least complete the foundations. As a surprising further gesture of support, when he viewed the work, Chris Ronneseth offered to fund the remaining construction. So now we look forward in the next few months to a home for two teacher families.

Tidivi Primary School - Grand OpeningFour new classrooms and a renovated, (but temporary) toilet building are now ready for occupancy in the next school term.We had a great celebration as the village provided singing, dancing, and promises from the village executives of continued support to maintain this school at a high level of operation and maintenance in future.

children escorting us to the new school site

The District Chairman, Mr Jubilate Mnenye, and the District Education Officer, Mr Papakinyi Kaai, again promised the support of their district government in ensuring the school's successful operation.

Jubilating District Chairman Jubilate Mnenye in new classroom

The village thanked the ex-cadets of the Class of '70 for their support of this school project and requested that they continue to support the school's growth over the next few years; remaining projects include teacher residences, library, administration building, teacher's room, kitchen/dining hall, and toilet building.

official ribbon-cutting

A certificate of appreciation was presented to Alan Roy representing the Class of '70.Thanks again to our excellent builder Restus Sanka for another quality construction project.

However, teacher residences for 4 teacher familiesare urgently needed now. Due to the remoteness of the school from rental housing, the teachers must live on site. This will be our fundraising project continuing in 2016.

traditional Iraqw men's tribal dance

Traditional Iraqw women's tribal dance

The village with the first two classrooms

Royal Military College of Canada - Class of '70 Sponsors

Kilimamoja Teacher Residence Building

The new teacher residence building is about 90% complete; good news for the two teacher families living in one of the (yet to be occupied) new classrooms. Once the cement parging on the walls is cured, the buildings will be painted our normal bright gold colour.

the new 2-family teacher residences - 90% complete

New 64 Girl dormitory project in the Mufindi area

The plans are completed and Restus Sanka will be building this new exciting project, starting the week of 18 - 22 July 2016. The project is funded by the African Book Box Society (ABBS) of Victoria in collaboration with the local Foxes' NGO organization, who will administer the construction contract. Restus and I visited the Mufindi area and enjoyed the wonderful hospitality of the Geoffrey Knight and Jenny Peck, who run the Foxes' NGO Mufindi Orphans project there, an inspiring effort to provide shelter, sustenance, education, and medical care for children in Mufindi, and to curtail the spread of HIV.

tea farming hills

site levelling

Geoffrey, Upendo, Jenny, Alan, Restus

meeting with teachers to review plans

Unlike most of Tanzania, this hilly region, relatively speaking, is "baridi kali" (very cold). The scenery of rolling hills carpeted in tea planting surrounded by trees harvested for timber was both bucolic and breathtaking, and belied any sense of struggles by the local people. Restus will have a challenge building this project, probably one of the most sophisticated in the region. He will seek out the best local "fundies" (tradesmen) in an effort to use as many locals as possible. We enjoyed meeting some of them and were impressed with their friendly quiet nature.Restus and I are very grateful to ABBS for the use of their comfortable Mufindi home "Protea" that came supplied with some of the best home cooked meals that we have had in Tanzania to date, creatively prepared by the talented and sweet natured chef, Upendo (which literally translates as "love").

Stay tuned for more updates in the near future, with stories and photos of our adventures. Thanks for the visit...

Alan Roy

More buildings are needed to complete the school projects, so...Please donate

Please make out cheque to "PSFA Primary Schools For Africa Society", and send to:

Primary Schools For Africa Society

3301 Wordsworth Street, Victoria, BC, V8P 4B9

or with credit card, click on DONATION button on website www.PrimarySchoolsForAfrica.com